【2nd Update】

On July 4th, the eyes of the entire world were drawn to the Far East, and a large number of Chinese and British warships gathered in the Xingzhou Strait, because the width of the strait exit was only less than 20 kilometers, it was obvious that this was not an ideal place for the large fleet to fight, but it became the focus of small warships on both sides.

Edward? Vice Admiral Simon made up his mind to go all the way to the east, preparing to directly attack the enemy next to the couch of the South China Democratic Republic, and at the same time, this can also completely solve the problem of the Dutch East Indies War, once this strategic goal is achieved, even if the Chinese Navy cannot be annihilated, it can be regarded as the basic combat mission of the Royal Navy in the Far East, and at the same time show the boundless combat power of the Royal Navy!

However, the Chinese Navy obviously did not give him any convenience, and Rear Admiral Tauwell, who served as the commander of the Second Squadron, assembled three Admiral-class battleships and the Brute-class ironclad ship, the Collingwood, the Anson, and the Camping, and two Fortified-class cruisers, two Pavrel-class cruisers, and two Orlando-class cruisers to form a strong facelift, and just went out to find that he had encountered an embarrassing situation.

The Chinese Navy has blocked the exit of the Xingzhou Strait, and there are at least 7 or more Chinese destroyers and small minelayer gunboats outside the entire estuary, and at the same time, in the distance, a huge warship with billowing black smoke and 4 huge chimneys is completely unscrupulous back and forth, and the sky in the distance is filled with columns of smoke, obviously, it will definitely not be a boring pile of merchant ships!

The Orlando-class cruiser HMS Immortal was ordered to sail out of the Strait to reconnoitre, and this cruiser was the main cruiser of the Royal Navy before the Blakes class, although its displacement was much lower than that of the Blake-class. Only 5200 tons of displacement. But it still has strong combat effectiveness and high cost performance.

The Orlando division is famous. Its parent cruiser was the HMS Moxie-class protective cruiser built at the same time as Sir White's construction of the Brutton-class ironclad, and the success of the Orlando class was that it had almost the top configuration of a cheap warship of the era, the first generation of the Royal Navy's cruiser to use a three-expansion steam engine, and the 5,500 horsepower allowed him to easily run at 17 knots and 18 knots under pressure.

Two 234mm, 32 times diameter main guns, and 10 150mm MK1884 rear-loading rapid-fire guns give the Orlando class a combat firepower comparable to that of the Brute class, of course, the Brute class is a twin 234mm. But that big iron pier weighs a full 3,500 tons, and the Orlando-class Immortal protective cruiser dares to stand up here is naturally because he is very strong...... At least that's what the Royal Navy thinks...... cassette armor belt.

Sir White designed the same box armor belt for the Orlando-class cruisers as the Brute class, that is, the armor belt of the entire battleship formed an inverted box, and even had a box lid to prevent it from being penetrated by artillery, damaging the bottom boiler and ammunition depot, the side chord armor was equipped with 254mm wrought iron composite armor, and the box partitions on the front and back were outrageous 406mm wrought iron armor, and the top of the box was also 70-100mm.

The main gun is armored 150mm. The iron cover of the secondary gun also has a 120mm gun profile, and the conning tower has reached the level of a super turtle shell of 305mm...... But. The commander of the Immortal, Colonel Myers, soon found himself overly optimistic!

"Report!" The lookout officer rushed in, "The identity of the enemy ship in front has been determined, it is the cruiser Chiyou of the Chinese fleet!" ”

"Chiyou...... It's the supposedly crazy battleship with 9 main guns? "Colonel Myers is obviously also good at military affairs, this Chinese battleship can be said to be famous overseas, after all, the outrageous battleship with 9 main guns in this era is absolutely rare, that is, 6 main guns, only German battleships in Europe have done this now, but I heard that there are many Chinese battleships!

"Left rudder 30 degrees...... Let's go around the side and drive the Chinese small gunboats by the way, and pay attention to the distance to make sure we are 7,000 meters away from the perverted battleship," Colonel Myers immediately made up his mind...... The Royal Navy has a large number of battleships to confront this Chinese battleship with its main guns, but it definitely doesn't need itself, although its main guns are much thicker than the other party's, but it is much less, 2 to 9, what the hell is this!

At the moment when the first mate had just turned the rudder, the adjutant at the observation position suddenly pointed to the distance and exclaimed, "Colonel, the Chiyou has fired!" ”

This shout surprised Colonel Miles, who rushed to the bridge observation post and raised his binoculars to look into the distance, and sure enough, he ...... The Chiyou ship's bow A gun position triple main gun, B gun position double main gun, stern C gun position double main gun, D gun position double main gun all spit out fierce artillery fire in order.

"How far are we from the Chinese Yankees? Are they crazy? Colonel Miles, the boss with his mouth open, roared.

"Colonel, ranging 8100 meters...... There may be errors, but it will not be lower than 8000 meters! The officer next to him reported loudly.

"Chinese really ......" Colonel Myers wanted to despise the Chinese Navy's waste of shells, but he was surprised to find that less than 400 meters away from the port side of the battleship, a shell exploded, setting off a wave several meters high on the sea, and in less than 3 seconds, another shell had fallen less than 100 meters northwest of the stern, and the third shell roared, directly passing the top of the battleship and landing 300 meters at the stern......

What's even worse is that the fourth shell flew directly over the aft deck and landed less than 50 meters away from the east side of the deck, setting off a huge wave......

50 m ...... This is definitely not a hit that can be hit by random shooting, and it is directly after flying over the battleship, to put it bluntly, if the Immortal is a little slower, this shell can hit the battleship's towering command tower, although the colonel is very calm about the 305mm armor of his command tower, but being hit, it is not fun at all, especially at 8000 meters away!

"Turn the rudder 15 degrees to the right, maneuver immediately, and open the distance!" Colonel Miles immediately realized that this was not a fun game of hide and seek, but a game of death.

On the bridge of the "......" Chiyou, Rear Admiral Chen Ming held a telescope and looked at the huge waves behind the tail of the hull of the Immortal cruiser in the distance, and then turned his head to look at Han Tianye, a gunnery officer who was sitting in front of the WK1888 shooting director...... I couldn't help muttering in my heart, "The level of this product is really extraordinary, and the first round of single-shot school shots can also play a sandwich shot...... If it goes on like this, there is a lot of promising cultivation prospects! ”

"D Gun Position Straddle Fire!" The observer officer loudly reported the best reference point for a single shot of school fire.

"All adjusted, D gun position firing parameters, 2 rounds of rapid fire!" Han Tianye immediately entered the new shooting parameters, and at the same time pressed the indicator light of salvo preparation, and soon, the indicator light of the four turrets in front and rear that had been prepared was lit up almost at the same time, and the gun chief officer behind Chen Ming immediately stared at the horizontal swing indicator on the firing fire control platform with all his attention, and then violently pressed the shooting electronic control button.

Boom Boom Boom ...... Boom...... Although the main gun of the Chiyou is only 210mm caliber, it is a rapid-fire gun with a 40 times diameter and long barrel, and the fierce salvo power makes the 10,000-ton battleship still move violently.

Less than 10 seconds after the turret preparation indicator light went out, it was all lit up again, and the gun commander did not hesitate to press the electronically controlled firing switch again, and the earth-shattering artillery fire once again dominated the sea and sky......

The Chiyou walked slowly from the sky of artillery fire out of the wind, the huge gun barrel raised high, neatly pointed at the sea and sky of the immortal cruiser, although it was not fired again, but at this moment more than 8000 meters away Colonel Myers was already sweating, just ten seconds ago, the first round of shells on the opposite side smashed directly on the position less than 200 meters away from the bow of the ship, on the huge sea, by 9 volleys of shells set off a large wave.

If it weren't for the 15-degree deflection in time, the battleship would have sailed into that area without any suspense, and it would obviously not be a large wave that would have set off there, but a barrage of barrage flying on the battleship and the flesh and blood of countless unlucky soldiers......

"Turn right 10 degrees...... Tactical maneuvers, commands, free-fire at full speed from the sidechord artillery! "Colonel Miles is now fully aware of his danger...... It is really a terrifying Chinese navy, such artillery skills, no wonder it can run rampant in the Far East, and even let the entire Russian fleet not have sharks, such a terrifying enemy, obviously not to deal with by themselves, or to the invincible monarch-class battleships of the Royal Navy.

As for full firepower, this is completely one of the characteristics of the navy in this era, and most British naval guns use slow-burning black powder or maroon explosives, which can create a huge black fog, so that although it obscures their vision, it can also make it difficult for opponents to observe themselves!

"...... of the change of course of enemy ships"

"2 blocks from the motor!"

"Ranging...... 8110 m ...... Second...... 8170 m......"

"Direction motor, add 5 degrees!"

"Direction change grille disc scale -10 degrees, ready to calculate the trajectory!"

"Distance change grille disc +5 degrees!"

"Gyrocompass coordinates...... 11-74-41-77……”

A series of data was entered on the dial of the shooting commander almost in a few seconds, and Han Tianye's head almost got into the "Typhoon Calculation Clock" in the middle of the command instrument, and the dense scale on the calculation clock was changing rapidly, and after the freeze frame, a new shooting change rate appeared on the dial.

"The elevation angle of the high and low machine remains the same, and the direction machine is ...... 0.7 degrees to the left, two rapid shots! Less than 15 seconds before the first round of salvos, Han Tianye had already completed the setting of the second set of shooting parameters, and the red shooting preparation light immediately flashed, and the huge war machine of the Chiyou was already running at high speed under the command of the most perfect tactical machinery of this era!

Boom Boom Boom Boom ......

Nine 210mm shells soared into the air and swooped down on the British ship Immortal, which was drowning in billowing black smoke at the sea level in the distance!

[The fire control system is derived from the perfect Dreyer prototype fire control platform...... I hope you all like the description of the snow drift battle! Wow Ka Ka] (To be continued......)